Some time in 1984 I saw the film Diva, and I thought it was quite impressive the living in commercial buildings.
I also had the urge to get out of town for a change and hitch hiked to Tairua, while there I found an advertisement in the Herald, advertising a floor of a commercial building in Anzac Ave as a dwelling.
When I got back to Auckland I followed it up, then found a couple of people to go into it with me, I ended up in it with different people, but that’s the way these sorts of things evolve.
It was on the third floor, well at the front it was, at the back it was ground level behind Brooklyn Flats.
the back door
Washing out behind Brooklyn
Peter
At first it was fairly rudimentary, but we developed it during the time we were there, and acquired more stuff.
early days in the kitchen with Lisa
I think I recall initially living in the tent below.
And then going on to more personalised areas of the space.
Over time we ended up with a lot of pretty cool things there
And there was quite a few interesting people up to interesting stuff.
Gavin is an artist an musician and that expanded my horizons quite a lot. And involved some great performances at home
And further out in the world
Downstairs from us was Progressive Music Studio, below NRA recording there
We were not the only people living in the CBD back then, but there weren’t many people. One of them was another Brian
Below more pics from the time
Gavin, Otis David and Chris in 2008
Feet go at the bottom!
